Description:Complete Specification:
The following specification describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

Field of the invention:
[0001] The present invention relates to a Charging Control Unit (CCU) for an Electric Vehicle (EV) and a method thereof.

Background of the invention:
[0002] In the current CCU design architecture, dedicated CCU pins and signal conditioning circuits are designed for each EV charging standards. With this approach there are lot of pins required in the CCU side to handle multiple EV connectors.

[0003] According to a patent literature US2013214737, a data transmission device and method between charger and electric vehicle is disclosed. This disclosure provides a data transmission device used between a charger and an electric vehicle, including an internal interface compatible with messages or commands of a first protocol; an external interface compatible with messages or commands of a second protocol; an outside-to-inside transformation module, being adapted to receive messages or commands of the second protocol from the electric vehicle, to transform the messages or commands of the second protocol to messages or commands of the first protocol according to functions of data carried by the messages or commands, and to send the messages or commands of the first protocol to the charger; and an inside-to-outside transformation module, being adapted to receive messages or commands of the first protocol from the charger, to transform the messages or commands of the first protocol to messages or commands of the second protocol according to functions of data carried by the messages or commands, and to send the messages or commands of the second protocol to the electric vehicle; wherein the messages or commands sent from the outside-to-inside transformation module to the charger include: CER message, CSR message, CCS message and CCR message.

Brief description of the accompanying drawings:
[0004] An embodiment of the disclosure is described with reference to the following accompanying drawings,
[0005] Fig. 1 illustrates a Charging Control Unit (CCU) for an Electric Vehicle (EV), according to an embodiment of the present invention, and
[0006] Fig. 2 illustrates a method for establishing charging communication using the Charing Control Unit (CCU) of the Electric Vehicle (EV), according to the present invention.

Detailed description of the embodiments:
[0007] Fig. 1 illustrates a Charging Control Unit (CCU) for an Electric Vehicle (EV), according to an embodiment of the present invention. The CCU 100 comprises a controller 110 with a plurality of input pins configured for Low Voltage (LV) communications in a specific charging standard. A number of the plurality of input pins are variable and configured/selected according to a selected charging standard from multiple charging standards, characterized in that, the CCU 100 comprises fixed common pins 104 in place of the plurality of input pins, which are configurable and compatible for LV communication of any charging standard. The common pins 104 are set of fixed number of pins which are made compatible to support all charging standard instead of different number of input pins for different charging standard. The common pins 104 is also referred to as combined pins. The controller 110 detects voltages at the single inlet/dual inlet which is connected to common pins 104 of the CCU 100. The single inlet/dual inlet corresponds to charging socket in the vehicle provided at either front side of the vehicle or rear side of the vehicle or both sides.

[0008] According to an embodiment of the present invention and to simplify the connections, the common pins 104 are provided. The common pins 104 corresponds to set of pre-defined number of input pins to handle multiple charging connectors 102 designed in different charging standards generally based on country. Further, Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) is also be solved using simplified approach for the EV architecture. In addition, necessary pull-down circuit 136 and a pull-up circuit 138 are enabled based on the charging standard’s hand shaking requirement on the time of plugging-in of the charging connector 102. The charging communication between Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) such as charging stations, and EV is established on the Analog-to-Digital (ADC) threshold.

[0009] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the common pins 104 are configurable to be used for any one of the charging standard selected from group comprising China DC (GBT) 112, CHAdeMO (or CHAdeMO 2.0) 114, Chaoji (or CHAdeMO 3.0) 116, CCS1/2 118, and Megawatt Charging System (MCS) 120. The common pins 104 are for Low Voltage (LV) communication pins of charging connectors 102. Further, the charging connectors 102 are comprises single inlet or dual inlet formats.

[0010] In accordance to an embodiment of the present invention, the four pins are CP1_A+ 122, CP2_A- 124, CC1_CP3_CP 126, and CC2_CS_PP 128. The “CP” corresponds to control pilot, “A” corresponds to auxiliary, “CC” corresponds to charge control, “CS” corresponds to proximity switch. Since these pins are combined or made common, the notations is not fixed and therefore the acronyms are separated using "_" symbol. The charging connectors 102 with charging standards China DC (GBT) 112, CHAdeMO 114 are configured using the four pins CP1_A+ 122, CP1_A- 124, CC1-CP3_CP 126, and CC2_CS_CP 128. The charging connector 102 with charging standards Chaoji 116, CCS1/2 118, and MCS 120 are configured through two pins CC1-CP3_CP 126, and CC2_CS_CP 128. The China DC needs CC1 CC2 A+ A-, CHAdeMO needs VCP CPD CSS1 CSS2, Chaoji needs CC1 CC2), and CCS1/2 requires CP CC CS PP. Further, Power Line Communication technologies (PLC) is integrated into CC1_CP3_CP line to support CCS1/2 DC charging standard requirement. The PLC block is not shown in Fig. 1 but connects the CC1-CP3_CP 126 to the controller 110.

[0011] In Fig. 1, the charging connector 102 and the CCU 100 are shown. The charging connector 102 comprises pins as per any one standard along with power pins 130 for supplying the charging currents such as DC+, DC-, L1, L2, L3, PE and connected to On Board Charger (OBC) and/or Battery Management System (BMS) of the EV, and Controller Area Network (CAN) pin 132. Similarly, the CCU 100 also comprises corresponding terminals to receive the pins from the charging connector 102 such as common pins 104 and CAN terminal 134. The terminals are internally connected with signal conditioning circuits 106 and other electrical or electronic components and to the input pins of the controller 110 as known in the art. The controller 110 is either with or without wake-up functionality. Further, the CCU 100 with common pins 104 is also V2X / V2V compatible, supports charge start/stop button, flap detection, LED charge indication, dual inlet support, transient protection, ESD, UV, OV, load dump, RPP, Chaoji adapter support. The EV corresponds to electric vehicle, Fuel cell vehicle, or hybrid vehicle which is operatable with battery.

[0012] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the common pins 104 are four in number, and each of the common pins 104 are interfaced through a signal conditioning circuit 106 as known in the art within the CCU 100. In addition, two of the four common pins 104 are supported by the configurable pull-down circuit 136 and the pull-up circuit 138.

[0013] According to an embodiment of the present invention, a configuration file 140 is flashed in the controller 110 to detect charging standard of the inlet charging connector 102 based on threshold values for common pins 104.

[0014] In accordance to an embodiment of the present invention, the CCU 100 is provided with necessary signal detection, acquisition, and processing circuits. The CCU 100 is the one which comprises input interface, output interfaces having pins or ports, the memory element 108 such as Random Access Memory (RAM) and/or Read Only Memory (ROM), Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) and a Digital-to-Analog Convertor (DAC), clocks, timers, counters and at least one processor (capable of implementing machine learning) connected with each other and to other components through communication bus channels. The memory element 108 is pre-stored with logics or instructions or programs or applications or modules/models and/or threshold values/ranges, reference values, predefined/predetermined criteria/conditions, lists, configuration file 140 which is/are accessed by the at least one processor as per the defined routines. The internal components of the CCU 100 are not explained for being state of the art, and the same must not be understood in a limiting manner. The CCU 100 may also comprise communication units such as transceivers to communicate through wireless or wired means such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), 3G, 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, serial networks, and the like. The CCU 100 is implementable in the form of System-in-Package (SiP) or System-on-Chip (SOC) or any other known types. Examples of CCU 100 comprises but not limited to, microcontroller, microprocessor, microcomputer, etc.

[0015] Further, the processor may be implemented as any or a combination of one or more microchips or integrated circuits interconnected using a parent board, hardwired logic, software stored in the memory element 108 and executed by a microprocessor, firmware, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and/or a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The processor is configured to exchange and manage the processing of various Artificial Intelligence (AI) modules.

[0016] According to the present invention, a working of the CCU 100 is explained. Consider the CCU 100 is requested by a first OEM in a first charging standard. Similarly, a second OEM has also requested for CCU 100 but in a second charging standard. Now, in conventional solution, the number of input pins of the CCU 100 which are configured for first OEM and second OEM are different considering different charging standard. This signifies, that even though the same CCU 100 is requested, the CCU 100 is designed differently for first OEM and the second OEM which consumes time and effort. However, as per the present invention, the single CCU 100 is designed for both the first OEM and the second OEM. The single CCU 100 is composed of common pins 104 which is set of four pins (not limited to the same). The common pins 104 are compatible and configurable for the charging standard of interest. Thus from the manufacturing perspective of CCU 100, the time and cost are greatly reduced and the same CCU 100 which is used by first OEM is also usable by the second OEM as well. The only change is the configuration file 140 of the common pins 104, i.e. the detection of the charging connector 102 of a particular charging standard. The first OEM receives the CCU 100 which is flashed with the configuration file 140 to detect the charging connector 102 as per the first charging standard. Similarly, the second OEM receives the CCU 100 which is flashed with the configuration file 140 to detect the charging connector 102 as per the second charging standard. Thus, the same common pins 104 enables detection of charging connectors 102 of different charging standards.

[0017] In LV communication circuit for an Electric Vehicle (EV), the LV charging communication pins are reduced from sixteen pins (CCS1/2, China DC (GBT), CHAdeMO and Chaoji) to four pins which supports all communication standard. While connecting the charging connector 102 with a specific charging standard, the configuration is updated in the CCU 100 through detection of connector and corresponding communication is established. In the CCU 110, the plurality of input pin counts are optimized and minimizing in such a way to handle all the charging connectors with different charging standards using only fixed dedicated common pins 104.

[0018] Fig. 2 illustrates a method for establishing charging communication using the Charing Control Unit (CCU) of the Electric Vehicle (EV), according to the present invention. The method, characterized by, comprises plurality of steps of which a step 202 comprises detecting, by the controller 110, voltages at the, single inlet/dual inlet which is connected to common pins 104 of the CCU 100. The single inlet/dual inlet corresponds to charging socket in the vehicle provided at either front side of the vehicle or rear side of the vehicle or both sides. A step 204 comprises comparing, by the controller 110, the detected voltages with the values from the configuration file 140 flashed in the controller 110 for the specific charging standard. A step 206 comprises enabling, by the controller 110, the pull-down circuit 136 and the pull-up circuit 138 based on charging standard handshaking requirements. A step 208 comprises establishing charging communication between the Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) and EV. The method is executed by the controller 110.

[0019] According to the present invention, the charging standard is selected from group comprising China DC (GBT) 112, CHAdeMO 114, Chaoji 116, CCS1/2 118, and MCS 120. The configuration file 140 defines the charging connector 102 and thresholds for common pins 104 of different standards and is flashed in the controller 110 for the specific selected charging standard. The CCU 100 comprises common pins 104 to function for all charging standards.

[0020] According to the present invention, a simplified EV charging pins for all types of EV charging standards and inlets such as CCS1/2, China DC(GBT), CHAdeMO, MCS and Chaoji is disclosed. The CCU 100 with common pins 104 offers hardware and software solutions that enables the customers (or Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM)) to use single CCU 100 with only four pins for all the different types of EV charging connectors 102 across the world by simple replacing the inlet alone and keeping CCU 100 same for all the different countries. Instead of having dedicated pins for each EV charging connectors 102, the present invention discloses simplified common pins 104 to handle all the different pins of EV charging connectors 102 so that OEM is provided with single CCU 100 approach to support location based manufacturing. The present invention reduces the pin count and size of the CCU 100. The CCU 100 is provided as Hardware as a Product (HaaP) with embedded software.

[0021] It should be understood that the embodiments explained in the description above are only illustrative and do not limit the scope of this invention. Many such embodiments and other modifications and changes in the embodiment explained in the description are envisaged. The scope of the invention is only limited by the scope of the claims.
, Claims:We claim:
1. A Charging Control Unit (CCU) (100) for an Electric Vehicle (EV), said CCU (100) comprises:
a controller (110) with a plurality of input pins configured for Low Voltage (LV) communications in a specific charging standard, a number of said plurality of input pins are variable and configured according to said specific charging standard selected from multiple charging standards, characterized in that, said CCU (100) comprises fixed number of common pins (104) in place of said plurality of input pins, which are configurable and compatible for LV communication of any charging standard.

2. The CCU (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said charging standard is selected from group comprising China DC (GBT) (112), CHAdeMO (114), Chaoji (116), CCS1/2 (118), and MCS (120).

3. The CCU (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said common pins (104) are four in number.

4. The CCU (100) as claimed in claim 3, wherein said two of said four common pins (104) are supported by configurable pull-down circuit (136) and a pull-up circuit (138).

5. The CCU (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said common pins (104) are interfaced through a signal conditioning circuit (106).

6. The CCU (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein a configuration file (140) is flashed in said controller (110) to enable detection of charging standard of a charging connector (102) based on threshold values of said common pins (104).

7. A method for establishing charging communication using a Charing Control Unit (CCU) (100) of an Electric Vehicle (EV), characterized by, said method comprising the steps of:
detecting voltages at the common pins (104) of said CCU (100);
comparing said detected voltages with the values from a configuration file (140) flashed in a controller (110) for the specific charging standard;
enabling pull-down circuit (136) and pull-up circuit (138) based on charging standard handshaking requirements, and
establishing charging communication between an Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) and said EV.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said charging standard is selected from group comprising China DC (GBT) (112), CHAdeMO (114), Chaoji (116), CCS1/2 (118), and MCS (120).

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said configuration file (140) defines said charging connector (102) and thresholds for common pins (104) of different standards.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said CCU (100) comprises common pins (104) to function for all charging standards.